P. Hsu is adjunct assistant professor, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California. M.C. Bryant is operations executive, Adventist Health White Memorial, Los Angeles, California. T.M. Hayes-Bautista is graduate medical education mentor/consultant, Adventist Health White Memorial, Los Angeles, California. K.R. Partlow is director, Urban Health Institute, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, California. D.E. Hayes-Bautista is distinguished professor, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California.
Acad Med. 2019 Aug;94(8):1099-1102. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002740.
Researchers attempting to identify and track health disparities and inequities generally use five racial or ethnic (R/E) categories-four racial groups (white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian) and one ethnic group (Hispanic)-to analyze and predict variations in health outcomes in the overall U.S. population. These categories are used as if they were permanent, naturally occurring, internally homogeneous, and discrete. However, the United States is becoming increasingly racially ambiguous because of (1) the growth of the Latino population, nearly half of whom do not identify with one of the four racial groups; and (2) the growing population of racially ambiguous babies, whose mothers and fathers are of different R/E groups. In California, an average annual 52.6% of the babies born between 2011 and 2015 were racially ambiguous (i.e., their parents were from different R/E groups or at least one parent was something other than a single race).We describe the social-legal construction of hard-edged, binary racial categories in the United States from 1790 to the present (and the subsequent racial structuring of U.S. society along those categories). Researchers should shift the conceptualization of race from that of an innate, individual trait to that of a narrative, and should consider the impact that racial narratives can have on the life courses of individuals categorized as nonwhite. In light of the increasing racial ambiguity in the United States, the Latino fuzzy-edged, multivalent racial narrative that embraces racial mixing may be one alternative to the United States' hard-edged, binary one.
研究人员试图识别和跟踪健康差距和不平等现象，通常使用五种种族或族裔（R/E）类别——四个种族群体（白种人、黑种人、亚洲/太平洋岛民和美洲印第安人）和一个族裔群体（西班牙裔或拉丁裔）——来分析和预测美国总人口中健康结果的变化。这些类别被用作似乎是永久性的、自然发生的、内部同质的和离散的。然而，由于以下两个原因，美国的种族越来越模糊：（1）拉丁裔人口的增长，其中近一半人不认同这四个种族群体之一；（2）种族模糊婴儿的人数不断增加，他们的母亲和父亲来自不同的 R/E 群体，或者至少一方不是单一种族。在加利福尼亚州，2011 年至 2015 年间出生的婴儿中，平均每年有 52.6%的婴儿的种族是模糊的（即他们的父母来自不同的 R/E 群体，或者至少一方不是单一种族）。我们描述了美国从 1790 年至今（以及随后的美国社会按照这些类别进行的种族结构划分）对硬性、二元种族类别进行的社会法律构建。研究人员应该将种族的概念从内在的、个体特征转变为叙述性的，并应该考虑到种族叙述对被归类为非白种人的个体的生活轨迹可能产生的影响。鉴于美国的种族日益模糊，拉丁裔模糊边缘、多元的种族叙述可能是美国硬性、二元种族叙述的替代选择之一。
